Representatives of South Lake Memorial and Orlando Regional signed the final documents completing the partnership this week.

The new hospital will be built on 40 acres off Jack's Lake Road north of State Road 50. The land was purchased several years ago by the hospital board.

Groundbreaking for the new hospital is scheduled for January 1996, with opening targeted for mid-1997, hospital board chairman Don Wickham said.

State and federal health care reform and the growth of health networks are pushing hospitals and physicians into partnerships and mergers, hospital officials say.

The large insurance companies typically use doctors who are affiliated with larger hospitals. Many companies are seeking to cut health care costs and are offering employees insurance with the big health networks.

The site also will house a wellness center to be built in cooperation with the South Lake YMCA or another organization.

The hospital has designated five acres for the wellness center. Discussions are under way with Maury L. Carter and Associates for donation of another 10 acres.

''I wouldn't say it's a done deal, but we're excited about what they're doing. The plans are very exciting; it's good for the community and good for our property,'' said Daryl Carter of Carter and Associates.

The Carter family owns 1,200 acres of undeveloped land on the eastern city limits.

Once completed, the wellness center would provide rehabilitation programs for hospital patients, exercise rooms, an indoor gymnasium, sports fields and a community pool.

Funding for the wellness center will be provided in part from an $800,000 grant from the newly created South Lake Hospital Foundation.

The foundation is being created with $2.4 million from South Lake Memorial donations and trusts and a $7.4 million donation from Orlando Regional.

The two nonprofit hospitals first entered into an agreement 25 years ago when South Lake Memorial acquired new cardiology equipment that was monitored by technicians at what was then known as Orange Memorial Hospital in Orlando.

The new partnership will allow patients at South Lake Memorial easier access to Orlando Regional's health-care services, including trauma and burn units, neonatal facilities, open-heart surgery and a cancer center that is planned.

Created in 1941 as a result of a three-year fundraising effort by the Clermont Welfare League, South Lake Memorial began as a 10-bed clinic to provide health care for expectant mothers, new babies and the seriously ill.

The 68-bed hospital was renovated several times over the years, including the addition of a new wing in 1953.

In 1969, the Florida Legislature enacted legislation creating a separate tax district to help the hospital provide indigent, ambulance and emergency care with a maximum tax rate of $2 for each $1,000 of assessed property value.

Before the latest partnership, the Orlando Regional Healthcare System had three hospitals in Orange County and one each in Seminole and Osceola counties.